March 29, 2013

Taking the United Nations apart piece by piece

A strongly worded memo -- from the National Post:
UN calls Harper government�s decision to pull out of anti-drought treaty �regrettable�
The United Nations said Friday that it is �regrettable� Canada will withdraw from a UN convention that fights the spread of droughts.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper has said Canada was withdrawing from the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification because the program has proven too bureaucratic, and not worth the $350,000 contributed each year.

The decision would make Canada the only country in the world not part of the convention.

�The Convention is stronger than ever before, which makes Canada�s decision to withdraw from the Convention all the more regrettable,� the Bonn-based secretariat for the convention said in a statement Friday.
Awwww -- some poor widdle bureaucrat in Bonn will not be able to make the payments on his 2013 Mercedes Limousine. Some more:
�Canada, a country that is frequently subjected to drought and where 60 per cent of the cropland is in dry areas, is also a major actor in global efforts to address food security in developing countries,� the UNCCD said.

The UN body said Canada�s annual contribution of $291,000 � less than the $350,000 the government says it was paying � accounted for 3.1 per cent of its budget.

It said the Canadian government and �Canadian civil society have played significant roles in moving the Convention to where it is today.�
And obviously, it is not the loss of 3.1% of their revenue, it is the fact that a Sovereign Nation is calling bullshit and dropping out of the program. The first drop of the coming flood. Their only power is in conformity and the mastermind's theory that they know better than us lessers. Some more:
In 2007, Canada along with the other 194 countries that are party to the convention agreed to a 10-year strategy to �enhance the implementation of the Convention as a blue print for a more effective and efficient process grounded on a strong and cutting-edge science,� Friday�s statement said.
So they bought into the Kool-Aid for six years out of ten. They saw it was only a bureaucratic fustercluck and decided to cut their losses. The United Nations needs to be defunded by 80%. There are a few programs that do good work but they could be spun off to stand-alone organizations and see a marked improvement in their operating efficiency. Posted by DaveH at March 29, 2013 8:48 PM